Two far-right conspiracy theorists will pay up to $1.25m in fines for launching a robocall campaign to discourage Black New York voters from participating in the 2020 election, the New York attorney general announced on Tuesday.
Jacob Wohl, of Irvine, California, and Jack Burkman, of Arlington, Virginia, were found liable in March 2023 for targeting about 5,500 Black voters as part of the robocall scheme.
Under the latest settlement agreement, Wohl and Burkman will pay more than $1m to the New York attorney general’s office, the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation (NCBCP) and individuals harmed in the robocall campaign.
The three parties filed a lawsuit against Wohl and Burkman in 2021 after an investigation by the attorney general’s office found that the pair had broken several state and federal laws.
In New York, callers were falsely told that their personal information would be added to a public database and used by police departments to track outstanding warrants or for mandatory Covid-19 vaccinations.
One call claimed to come from a spokesperson for a “civil rights organization” founded by Wohl and Burkman, according to a script shared in the press release.
“Mail-in voting sounds great, but did you know that if you vote by mail, your personal information will be part of a public database that will be used by police departments to track down old warrants and be used by credit card companies to collect outstanding debts? The CDC is even pushing to use records for mail-in voting to track people for mandatory vaccines,” the call said.
The call then warned that voters should not be “finessed into giving your private information to the man” and should “beware of vote by mail”.
One voter suffered “severe anxiety and distress” from the robocalls and later withdrew his voter registration, the press release said.
To address the robocalls’ false claims, NCBCP used “considerable resources” to reach misinformed voters.
In Tuesday’s release, the New York attorney general, Letitia James, called the robocall scheme “depraved”.
“Wohl and Burkman orchestrated a depraved and disinformation-ridden campaign to intimidate Black voters in an attempt to sway the election in favor of their preferred candidate,” James said.
“These men engaged in a conspiracy to suppress Black votes in the 2020 general election,” said the NCBCP president, Melanie Campbell, in Tuesday’s press release. “They used intimidation and scare tactics, attempting to spread harmful disinformation about voting in an effort to silence Black voices. Their conduct cannot and will not be tolerated.
The settlement agreement is the latest punishment for Wohl and Burkman, who ran similar schemes in at least two other states.
Wohl and Burkman were previously ordered to complete 500 hours of registering voters in lower-income neighborhoods by an Ohio judge after pleading guilty to charges in connection to a similar robocall campaign.
Wohl and Burkman also face additional charges in Michigan, CNN reported.